Charity Checkout Blog

Direct Debit is the best way to accept regular donations, for a number of different reasons. Here are just three of them: 1. Direct Debits do not expire If a donor sets up a regular donation with their credit or debit card, payments to the charity will be stopped automatically when the card expires. By lasting indefinitely with no expiration, using Direct Debit extends the lifetime of the donor's support substantially. Direct Debit should be the primary option for charities looking to ensure a consistent stream of regular giving. 2. Direct Debit reduces admin costs Donors that make regular donations by standing...

Many small charities are still not accepting online donations via their own website, according to research by charity payment processing specialist Charity Checkout. Their survey of 5,214 charities over the past two years found that 71% do not accept online donations. Charity Checkout’s founder Chester Mojay-Sinclare says that the contrast between national charities and local ones has never been so stark. He said: “Whilst the majority of local charities are do not accept credit and debit card payments online, large charities are investing more in technology year on year. We must reduce the technical and financial barriers to payment processing for smaller not...

In 15 years working as a fundraiser in charities large and small, the greatest challenges on most occasions were not: the economy, donor apathy, difficulty finding and retaining good staff or an emotive cause to tell donors about. No, the most common and energy sapping challenge is gaining and retaining the co-operation of colleagues in other departments, senior management and trustees. Don’t complain – get buy-in Without emotional buy-in and practical commitment to fundraising from colleagues and volunteers, the fundraisers will always be working with one hand tied. The hurdles can take many shapes. They might include a lack of...

This is a quick "how-to" blog post to show you how to create and add custom fields to your Checkouts, so that you can start capturing custom data from your supporters using Charity Checkout. Please Note: If you haven't already, we strongly recommend you check out our CEO's recent blog post introducing custom fields before you start using this advanced feature. Which type of custom field do we need? Shared custom fields These are custom fields that we've already created for you, just to save you a little time. These are shared among all our clients and act as universal data fields that you might...

Charity Checkout prides itself on offering charities an unrivaled service when it comes to customisable and branded payment services. Custom fields are the latest addition to our platform, and they are free to all customers. We've launched custom fields because we recognise that even the smallest of charities has its own unique needs. This feature allows you to customise your payment process with just a few clicks, enabling your charity to collect any information you might require from your supporters. This blog post will provide a brief introduction to our new feature. Field Categories There are two categories of custom fields: Payment fields You should...

Time is a precious commodity for all of us, but running a small charity as a volunteer in spare time alongside a full-time job still carries many of the same responsibilities and requirements as the larger charities with employees have to deal with. There are many website features for charities available, but here are a few that will help you save time. 1. Online payment system Standing orders have been around for years, but using this method not only requires you to look through your bank statements to keep track of your donors, but is unable to seize on the moment. 22%...

It’s widely known that a significant portion of the general public despises face-to-face fundraising. You only need to consider the rise of the popular term “Chugger” to see this. So what is it that gives this industry such a bad name? Well, the answer to that is quite apparent and one need only ask their neighbour for their opinion, to obtain a reasonably accurate depiction of the nation’s disdain for face-to-face. As stated by Cllr Paul Convery, from Islington Council, who recently announced that he is making efforts to get this activity off Islington’s streets, “I sympathise with charities. It’s...

There is no better method of online giving for your charity than Direct Debit. 31% of all donations to UK charities are made via Direct Debit these days, so if this is not something you are offering, here are three reasons why you should start offering Direct Debit as an online giving option... 1. Direct Debits are less likely to fail, never expire and therefore last longer Direct Debits are less likely to fail than a recurring credit/ debit card payment, and more importantly they never expire. This means that the average Direct Debit to your charity can easily last over ten years, whereas recurring credit/ debit...

On the tube, I started flicking through the Metro, and I noticed an Oxfam advert on the front page. “Donate to Oxfam this February and the nice people at PayPal will pay out running costs. So 100 per cent of your money goes directly to fighting poverty.” I checked this later online while waiting to get my hair cut, as you do these days, and PayPal were indeed covering Oxfam’s running costs, that’s 19p per £1 (and for what it’s worth, they are also actually quite nice at PayPal, I spent a weekend at their offices a while back). Interestingly,...

The issue for many small and medium sized charities is that they do not have the transaction volume required to negotiate a good deal directly with their bank or merchant service provider. This leaves many charities paying through the nose for their payment processing, or worse - deciding not to offer online donations at all. We have compiled three top tips for reducing your charity payment gateway costs: 1. Avoid using a fundraising website for processing donations on your website The difficulty associated with setting-up a merchant account has led to many charities to link their website’s donate button to a fundraising website such...